I told my wife that fight would be over in 45 seconds and in that comment I was right. Tommy and I were SO wrong about in our debate column, was that Pulver would be staring at the lights from a left hook by Lauzon. At 48 seconds in the first, Joe Lauzon konocked out Little Evil in his UFC return.
Winner: Lauzon with a shocking KO in the first round
Rashad looked in great shape and Lambert looked really ready to go so I knew this would be a good one. The fight started with a clinch and then Rashad scored the first of several takedowns. Evans would land some big rights and Lambert scrambled to counter, but nothing substantial came from his end.
They clinched again and Rashad scored another takedown and dominated the first round easily.
In the second Rashad scored more takedowns and gained the mounted position where he dropped some huge bombs that put Lambert's lights out giving him the win.
Melvin came out aggressively landing some big shots to Gabe's chin.
Reudiger weathered the barrage and after several Guillard takedowns, nearly secured a rear naked choke.
In the second, Melvin lands some heavy shots to the body and face of Gabe who looks a little gassed. Out of nowhere, Guillard scored with a huge body shot that dropped Gabe to the canvas for the TKO.
I liked the new entrances that they had for the fighters. It was big budget and really made the fights seem bigger than life.
In the first round Loiseau looked absolutely gun shy. Swick landed some leg kicks and then a nice reverse side kick. One thing that happened a lot during the first round was David holding on to the fence when Mike was working for the takedowns. Swick continued to flurry and got the takedown after a nice combination from Loiseau. Mike got David's back near the end of the round, but Loiseau gets right back up at the bell.
The second round saw a lot of circling with no action and that got the boos going from the crowd. Mike Swick taunts Loiseau much like Forrest did when he came out in the second round of the Ortiz fight. Swick landed yet another reverse sidekick and then no action for about a minute. A flying knee by Mike and then a takedown with Swick on top.
In the third, Loiseau took advantage of Swick's fatigue. Mike landed some flurries, but Loiseau was all over him and landed a lot of elbows in Mike's guard, standing, and clinched against the fence. Swick lands more punches and scores a takedown near the end of the fight.
Winner: 29-28, 29-28, 29-28 unanimous decision Mike Swick.
Round 1 and here comes Matt pushing the pace. Matt and BJ trade back and forth with each other before Matt attempts takedown after takedown, but they are all defended expertly by Penn. In the middle of the round, Penn accidentally poked Matt in the eye and the fight was briefly stopped. More Hughes takedown attempts, but they are met with resistance from BJ again.
In the second, Hughes lands a nice kick to Penn and goes for the takedown.
Hughes gets the takedown and looks to have the round well in hand with some fair ground and pound. Some good submission escapes and hard elbows from Matt highlight the majority of the round. Near the end of the round, BJ gets Matt's back and it looked like this fight was over with. BJ locked in a deep triangle armbar and had Matt in serious trouble, but the champion was saved by the bell.
The third round saw a very exhausted BJ Penn and a very fresh, but bloodied Matt Hughes. Matt absolutely dominated this round with good striking befoer taking the fatigued challenger down. Just like the Carlos Newton fight, Hughes locked both of BJ Penn's arms up and rained down punches and elbows from side control until the referee had to step in and stop the fight.
Georges St Pierre came out after the fight and said he was not impressed with Matt's performance, but looked forward to the fight. He quickly apologized off camera to Matt saying "don't you want more pay per view buys.
He meant to create drama for the UFC to sell more tickets, but he angered the champion and his camp in the process.
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